I loved you, so I drew these tides of men into my hands and wrote my will across the sky in stars to earn you Freedom.
- T.E. Lawrence

All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act out their dream with open eyes, to make it possible.
T.E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom

Friday, May 13, 2005

Article 98

Father gets seven-and-a-half years for murdering daughter By Rana Husseini

AMMAN — The Criminal Court on Thursday sentenced a 55-year-old man to seven-and-a-half years in prison after convicting him of murdering his married daughter in South Shouneh in November 2004.

S. O., was first handed a 15-year prison sentence for shooting his 17-year-old daughter three times in the face at his home on Nov. 11.

But his verdict was immediately commuted to half by the tribunal because the victim's husband dropped charges against the defendant.

The victim went missing from her home for one week starting July 31, 2004, according to court transcripts.

She was found by the police and placed in administrative detention for her protection for a few days, it added.

One of her relatives released her on bail and married her in the presence of her father, the court added.

On the day of the murder, the court said, the victim and her husband visited the defendant.

“During the visit, the victim's husband claimed that his wife told him she preferred the Egyptian man she was with when she left her home for a week,” the court said.

The defendant asked his son-in-law to leave the house and 15 minutes later shot his daughter once in the head, then twice more when she fell, court papers said.

The defendant then headed to the nearest police station, handed over his gun to the authorities and told them he killed his daughter to “cleanse his family's honour.”

The tribunal rejected the defence argument that their client should benefit from a reduction in penalty as stipulated in Article 98 of the Penal Code because he killed his daughter in a fit of fury.

“The victim did not commit any act that is considered dangerous or unlawful and the defendant killed his daughter based on something he heard without clarifying the matter with the victim,” the court said.

Article 98 states: “A person who commits a crime in a fit of fury caused by an unlawful or dangerous act on the part of the victim benefits from a reduction of penalty.”

The Court of Cassation will automatically review Thursday's verdict, handed down by justices Omar Khleifat, Mohammad Abu Dalbouh and Bassam Yamani within the next 30 days.